U.S. Senator takes food stamp challenge

Published 1:33 pm, Saturday, June 1, 2013

U.S. Senator Chris Murphy spent $4.80 a day on food last week, the average food stamp benefit for a single person in Connecticut, in an attempt to bring attention to food stamp benefits.

U.S. Senator Chris Murphy spent $4.80 a day on food last week, the average food stamp benefit for a single person in Connecticut, in an attempt to bring attention to food stamp benefits.

Photo: Carol Kaliff

U.S. Senator takes food stamp challenge

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Freshman U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy decided to perform an experiment last week. In anticipation of the Senate vote on the Farm Bill, which will likely include cuts to the federal food stamp program, SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). Murphy calculated the average daily assistance for a single male in Connecticut ($4.80) and made that his daily food budget for a week.

"It's been quite an experience," he said in an interview on May 24, the final day of his experiment. "I've lost six pounds over the course of four days. I've been hungry throughout, and I have a newfound understanding of how difficult it is if you're living on the average food stamp allocation in Connecticut. There's this impression in Washington that people on food stamps are living some kind of luxurious government-financed lifestyle. I've found it to be incredibly difficult to buy food just to stop from being hungry, let alone to buy food that is healthy."

The U.S. House and Senate are considering competing Farm Bills that would cut the $80 billion per year SNAP program by 3 percent or by one half of 1 percent, with the House favoring the steeper cuts.

According to SNAP documents, the program reached 45 million Americans in fiscal year 2011, or roughly one in seven people. More than 422,000 of Connecticut's 3.59 million residents, or almost 12 percent, participate in the SNAP program, according to the Food Research and Action Center.

New Canaan, a town known in part for its wealth and expensive home prices, has a surprising amount of residents in need of food.

With the federal budget deficit expected to come in between 4 and 6 percent of GDP this fiscal year, and with the national debt to GDP ratio hovering around 100 percent, some argue that the cost of social programs is simply unsustainable and that moderate cuts must be made before drastic cuts would come about in a crisis.

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Murphy agreed that debt is a problem, but countered that other items in the bill could be cut.

"You can find other savings right inside the Farm Bill," he said. "This Farm Bill continues to subsidize very wealthy agribusinesses. I supported keeping the $4 billion (in proposed cuts) by cutting from those (subsidies)."

Murphy said that his colleagues in the Senate have taken note of his empty plate at regular lunches of Democratic members. The attention his diet has received has allowed him to talk about his views on the matter.

"I haven't eaten at either of the two lunches this week and colleagues have asked `why?' and I've been able to talk to them about the challenge," he said. "We have an obligation in this society to make sure that children don't go hungry. It's unconscionable in the richest most powerful country in the world that children go hungry."

Murphy also documented his diet all week in sometimes humorous tweets.

"Can't eat ramen 3 nts in row for dinner, so had to downsize lunch today to 3 small chicken legs. #foodstampchallenge," he tweeted on Wednesday, May 22.

"Saved enough today to afford a bowl of pasta for dinner. It was, in a word, spectaculous. #foodstampchallenge," he tweeted later that night, accompanied by an empty bowl and spoon.

Friday morning, Murphy said he would be happy to return to a normally-funded diet. His first meal?

"Probably a good bagel with cream cheese to start the day. I've been eating bananas every morning and I don't even like bananas."